Spec revision.

[Swi1ch]

Budget was £1000 so i've gone a little bit over.
In pre-response to some of the standard questions:
Yes, I need 1TB Space.
Resolution is 1280x1080 but after getting this will be getting a new monitor.
No I don't like Lian Li, and will be sticking with the 1200.

I've basically got a taste for Crysis and want to be able to play it smoothly with some nice graphics (And Far Cry 2) which is the reason for the budget break. Had initially got my eyes on a 4870 1GB but since the Sapphires sold out i've been forced to reconsider. It's definitely between a 4870 1GB and the 260. Although, the 4870 is cheaper and by most benchmarks runs faster, but we'll have to see.

I would like to overclock the CPU and GPU. With ATI overclocking is as simple as using the CCC; does NVidia have an equal? As for the CPU, is that MB good enough to overclock? Would it be worth getting a gigabyte instead?

 

[Swi1ch]

I'm definitely going with the 1200 as a case so no price drops there.

After looking at some reviews and benchies, I'm seriously tempted to go back to the 4870 though.

 

[Swi1ch]

I have highly considered the TRUE, but the Zalman just looks cooler. I'll see what the prices are after Xmas, but I won't be pushing a crazy overclock (3.5 at the very most) so a little dip in performance that I probably won't notice is something i'm happy with for something that looks a whole lot better.

As to the case, yeah it's a bit pricey it's gone up recently, but it's the only case that's really caught my eye (I've not yet had chance to go through the whole LEDs all over the place Case phase), and I like the big fan in top.

Just had a gander at those reviews, and they're totally different to the one's on Tom's Hardware, which shows that at 1920x1200 the 4870 is usually better and that's with a 512 card not a 1gb! It shows that the 4870 512mb was average 37 FPS on max details 0xaa, and 21.6 with 4xaa and AF, whereas Bit-Tech says 4870 1gb 19.5 0xaa and 17.6 with 2xaa! I've however only ever run games at 2xaa and usually 0xaf 'cus I have no idea what AF does.

I'll see what the prices and money situation is like in the New Year (I only need to be able to afford half of it, as my Dad will loan me the other half), and might try and spring for the 4870X2, but that may be wishful thinking.

Oh, and I know this may sound silly, but I havn't had a new PC game in a long time. Even though my current monitor res is 1280x1024, in games I could lower/raise the res to increase/decrease quality, is that still possible?

 

[Swi1ch]

The 260 he's chosen is the OCX version though which beats the 4870 at everything and is very close to the 280 for most games. Its a wise choice IMO.

Oh and yes, I have the same model

I'm a little sceptical about the whole 'Overclocked out the box' thing; some guy on the Graphics Card board said he had to underclock his to get it to run stable, and that it was a common problem :S

Also, I heard that ATi's driver are currently far superior, and I have had better experiences with ATi. It'll come down to prices in the end however.

 

[Swi1ch]

Had a massive overhaul of the spec, as you can see:

Seems like an idea. £1.5k rather than £1.2k, but much better graphics card and generally better parts.

Graphics card subject to change dependant upon release of GTX295 (Buying mid-Jan most likely) so might change to 4870 etc all depends on prices.